Cohen & Gresser LLP

Antitrust & Competition

Managing Partner

Melissa H. Maxman is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She has decades of litigation experience at both the trial and appellate levels, primarily in the areas of antitrust, RICO, environmental law, complex commercial disputes, and white collar defense. She has extensive experience advising domestic and foreign corporations on global antitrust issues. She has represented clients in complex civil and criminal matters before the Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and in private civil matters.

Melissa has been recognized in The Legal 500’s U.S. guide in the antitrust: civil litigation/class actions: defense category. The guide has described her as a “brilliant thinker and lawyer.” She has also been recognized by Chambers USA in the antitrust litigation specialists category, in which she was described as “strong knowledgeable counsel with strong litigation, policy, and legislative skills and experience.” Chambers USA has also pointed to Melissa’s sophistication as an antitrust lawyer and has noted that she is “smart, practical and really works to make sure she is responsive to the client’s needs.” Melissa has also been named one of Washington, D.C.’s Super Lawyers each year since 2011. She has been recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Litigators in America since 2023 and was also named to its inaugural list of the 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers in 2025.

Prior to joining Cohen & Gresser, Melissa was the Chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice Group in the Washington, D.C. offices of two large national law firms. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was a law clerk for the Honorable Harry T. Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Melissa is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review.

Melissa has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2003, and is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies. She serves as a council member of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section, and was a former co-chair of its Exemptions and Immunities Committee and its National Institute on Class Actions.

District of Columbia; State of Maryland; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Commonwealth of Virginia; Superior Court of Pennsylvania; U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania; U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan; U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin; U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Fourth, and Tenth Circuits

University of Michigan Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1988)

George Washington University (B.A., 1983)